Chapter VI. LONDON'From this moment I cease to be the commander-in-chief. Livy adores England, can speak the language, understands the money, and knows all about London; so _she shall be leader, and I will repose after my long labour.' With this remark Amanda retired from office covered with glory, and her mates voted to erect a statue in her honour as a token of their undying gratitude.Lavinia took the lead from the moment they landed at St. Catherine's Warf; and though somewhat demoralized by a rough passage of eighteen hours from Antwerp, was equal to the occasion. She did love England,...
Long Stories - Post by : runtonk - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2689

Chapter V. ITALYSleep as deep, dreamless, and refreshing as if the beneficent spirit of Carlo Borromeo still haunted the enchanted lake, prepared the three for a day of calm delights. The morning was spent floating over the lake in a luxuriously cushioned boat with a gay awning and a picturesque rower, to visit Isola Bella. Everyone knows what a little Paradise has been made to blossom on that rock; so raptures over the flowers, the marbles, the panniers of lovely fruit, and the dirty, pretty children who offered them, are unnecessary.In the afternoon, having despatched the luggage to Florence, our travellers...
Long Stories - Post by : ow24160 - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2729

Chapter IV. SWITZERLAND'My children, listen to the words of wisdom ere it is too late,' began Lavinia, as the three sat about in dressing-gowns after a busy day in Geneva.'We listen, go on, Granny,' replied the irreverent girls.'If we stay here a week longer, we are ruined. Firstly, this Metropole is an expensive hotel; also noisy and full of fashionable people, whom I hate. Secondly, the allurements of the jewellers' shops are too much for us, and we had better flee before we spend all our money. Thirdly, if war does break out along the Rhine, as rumour now predicts, Geneva...
Long Stories - Post by : best4you - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 3146

Chapter III. FRANCE'Girls, I have had a scintillation in the night: listen and approve!' said Amanda, coming into the room where her comrades sat upon the floor, in the first stages of despair, at the impossibility of getting the accumulated rubbish of three months' travel into a couple of immense trunks.'Blessed girl! you always bring a ray of light just at the darkest moment,' returned Lavinia, with a sigh of relief, while Matilda looked over a barricade of sketch-books bristling with paint-brushes, and added anxiously,--'If you _could suggest how I am to work this miracle, you will be a public benefactor.''Behold...
Long Stories - Post by : codebluenj - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2470

Chapter II. BRITTANYAfter a late dinner, at which their appetites were pretty effectually taken away by seeing dishes of snails passed round and eaten like nuts, with large pins to pick out the squirming meat; a night's rest somewhat disturbed by the incessant clatter of _sabots in the market-place, and a breakfast rendered merry by being served by a _garcon whom Dickens would have immortalised, our travellers went on to Caulnes-Dinan.Here began their adventures, properly speaking. They were obliged to drive fourteen miles to Dinan in a ram-shackle carriage drawn by three fierce little horses, with their tails done up in...
Long Stories - Post by : Joe_Coon - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1467

Chapter I. OFF'On the first day of February we three will sail from Boston for Messina, in the little fruit-ship "Wasp." We shall probably be a month going, unless we cross in a gale as I did, splitting sails every night, and standing on our heads most of the way,' said Amanda, folding up her maps with an air of calm decision.'Hurrah! what fun!' cried Matilda, waving a half-finished dressing-case over her head.But Lavinia, with one sepulchral groan, fell flat upon her bed, and lay there, dumb with the horrors of such a voyage.'Just the thing for you, my poor old...
Long Stories - Post by : add2it - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1271

There is a sort of fate about writing books of travel which it is impossible to escape. It is vain to declare that no inducement will bribe one to do it, that there is nothing new to tell, and that nobody wants to read the worn-out story: sooner or later the deed is done, and not till the book is safely shelved does peace descend upon the victim of this mysterious doom.The only way in which this affliction may be lightened to a long-suffering public is to make the work as cheerful and as short as possible. With this hope the...
Long Stories - Post by : vbhnl - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2336

CHAPTER XX. AT FORTY"NEARLY twenty years since I set out to seek my fortune. It has been a long search, but I think I have found it at last. I only asked to be a useful, happy woman, and my wish is granted: for, I believe I am useful; I know I am happy."Christie looked so as she sat alone in the flowery parlor one September afternoon, thinking over her life with a grateful, cheerful spirit. Forty to-day, and pausing at that half-way house between youth and age, she looked back into the past without bitter regret or unsubmissive grief, and...
Long Stories - Post by : andrewteg - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2522

CHAPTER XIX. LITTLE HEART'S-EASEWHEN it was all over, the long journey home, the quiet funeral, the first sad excitement, then came the bitter moment when life says to the bereaved: "Take up your burden and go on alone." Christie's had been the still, tearless grief hardest to bear, most impossible to comfort; and, while Mrs. Sterling bore her loss with the sweet patience of a pious heart, and Letty mourned her brother with the tender sorrow that finds relief in natural ways, the widow sat among them, as tranquil, colorless, and mute, as if her soul had followed David, leaving the...
Long Stories - Post by : Dusty13 - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 3423

CHAPTER XVIII. SUNRISETHREE months later the war seemed drawing toward an end, and Christie was dreaming happy dreams of home and rest with David, when, as she sat one day writing a letter full of good news to the wife of a patient, a telegram was handed to her, and tearing it open she read:"Captain Sterling dangerously wounded. Tell his wife to come at once. E. WILKINS.""No bad news I hope, ma'am?" said the young fellow anxiously, as his half-written letter fluttered to the ground, and Christie sat looking at that fateful strip of paper with all the strength and color...
Long Stories - Post by : Dusty13 - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2509

CHAPTER XVII. THE COLONELTEN years earlier Christie made her d&#233;but as an Amazon, now she had a braver part to play on a larger stage, with a nation for audience, martial music and the boom of cannon for orchestra; the glare of battle-fields was the "red light;" danger, disease, and death, the foes she was to contend against; and the troupe she joined, not timid girls, but high-hearted women, who fought gallantly till the "demon" lay dead, and sang their song of exultation with bleeding hearts, for this great spectacle was a dire tragedy to them.Christie followed David in a week,...
Long Stories - Post by : ben.g - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1228

CHAPTER XVI. MUSTERED INCHRISTIE'S return was a very happy one, and could not well be otherwise with a mother, sister, and lover to welcome her back. Her meeting with Letty was indescribably tender, and the days that followed were pretty equally divided between her and her brother, in nursing the one and loving the other. There was no cloud now in Christie's sky, and all the world seemed in bloom. But even while she enjoyed every hour of life, and begrudged the time given to sleep, she felt as if the dream was too beautiful to last, and often said:"Something will...
Long Stories - Post by : Dusty13 - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 3469

CHAPTER XV. MIDSUMMER"NOW it is all over. I shall never have another chance like that, and must make up my mind to be a lonely and laborious spinster all my life. Youth is going fast, and I have little in myself to attract or win, though David did call me 'good and lovely.' Ah, well, I'll try to deserve his praise, and not let disappointment sour or sadden me. Better to hope and wait all my life than marry without love."Christie often said this to herself during the hard days that followed Mr. Fletcher's disappearance; a disappearance, by the way, which...
Long Stories - Post by : cclittle - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2830

CHAPTER XIV. WHICH?DAVID.MR. POWER received Christie so hospitably that she felt at home at once, and took up her new duties with the energy of one anxious to repay a favor. Her friend knew well the saving power of work, and gave her plenty of it; but it was a sort that at once interested and absorbed her, so that she had little time for dangerous thoughts or vain regrets. As he once said, Mr. Power made her own troubles seem light by showing her others so terribly real and great that she was ashamed to repine at her own lot.Her...
Long Stories - Post by : cclittle - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1587

CHAPTER XIII. WAKING UPEVERY thing did "go beautifully" for a time; so much so, that Christie began to think she really had "got religion." A delightful peace pervaded her soul, a new interest made the dullest task agreeable, and life grew so inexpressibly sweet that she felt as if she could forgive all her enemies, love her friends more than ever, and do any thing great, good, or glorious.She had known such moods before, but they had never lasted long, and were not so intense as this; therefore, she was sure some blessed power had come to uphold and cheer her....
Long Stories - Post by : gabby - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2297

CHAPTER XII. CHRISTIE'S GALAON the fourth of September, Christie woke up, saying to herself: "It is my birthday, but no one knows it, so I shall get no presents. Ah, well, I'm too old for that now, I suppose;" but she sighed as she said it, for well she knew one never is too old to be remembered and beloved.Just then the door opened, and Mrs. Sterling entered, carrying what looked very like a pile of snow-flakes in her arms. Laying this upon the bed, she kissed Christie, saying with a tone and gesture that made the words a benediction:"A happy...
Long Stories - Post by : codebluenj - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 3163

CHAPTER XI. IN THE STRAWBERRY BEDFROM that day a new life began for Christie, a happy, quiet, useful life, utterly unlike any of the brilliant futures she had planned for herself; yet indescribably pleasant to her now, for past experience had taught her its worth, and made her ready to enjoy it.Never had spring seemed so early or so fair, never had such a crop of hopeful thoughts and happy feelings sprung up in her heart as now; and nowhere was there a brighter face, a blither voice, or more willing hands than Christie's when the apple blossoms came.This was what...
Long Stories - Post by : ben.g - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2082

CHAPTER X. BEGINNING AGAINMRS. STERLING.IT was an April day when Christie went to her new home. Warm rains had melted the last trace of snow, and every bank was full of pricking grass-blades, brave little pioneers and heralds of the Spring. The budding elm boughs swung in the wind; blue-jays screamed among the apple-trees; and robins chirped shrilly, as if rejoicing over winter hardships safely passed. Vernal freshness was in the air despite its chill, and lovely hints of summer time were everywhere.These welcome sights and sounds met Christie, as she walked down the lane, and, coming to a gate, paused...
Long Stories - Post by : runtonk - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1442

CHAPTER IX. MRS. WILKINS'S MINISTERMR. POWER.NEXT day Christie braved the lion in his den, otherwise the flinty Flint, in her second-class boarding-house, and found that alarm and remorse had produced a softening effect upon her. She was unfeignedly glad to see her lost lodger safe, and finding that the new friends were likely to put her in the way of paying her debts, this much harassed matron permitted her to pack up her possessions, leaving one trunk as a sort of hostage. Then, with promises to redeem it as soon as possible, Christie said good-bye to the little room where she...
Long Stories - Post by : vbhnl - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 2973

CHAPTER VIII. A CURE FOR DESPAIRLISHA WILKINS.WHEN Christie opened the eyes that had closed so wearily, afternoon sunshine streamed across the room, and seemed the herald of happier days. Refreshed by sleep, and comforted by grateful recollections of her kindly welcome, she lay tranquilly enjoying the friendly atmosphere about her, with so strong a feeling that a skilful hand had taken the rudder, that she felt very little anxiety or curiosity about the haven which was to receive her boat after this narrow escape from shipwreck.Her eye wandered to and fro, and brightened as it went; for though a poor, plain...
Long Stories - Post by : vbhnl - Date : May 2012 - Author :Louisa May Alcott - Read : 1559